"From a Tampa tent in February to a cheerless October bunker in The Bronx, the biggest question in the Yankees' universe remains the same.

Starting pitching was the most serious when spring training opened without Cliff Lee and Andy Pettitte.

Five days after the Tigers ended their season, the topic remains in play, even though Yankees starters went 71-45 with a 4.03 ERA to help win the AL East and play to the best record in the league.

"The one need we are going to have to address again is the rotation, there is no doubt about it," Joe Girardi said yesterday at a Yankee Stadium press conference where the manager was peppered with questions about what went wrong and what needs to be fixed. "You have two guys [Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon] who are free agents and another guy [CC Sabathia] who can opt out. That's the one thing we are going to have to address. It's similar to what we had to do this year. It all starts with CC and goes from there.""